Convergence of Probability Measures. By P. Billingsley. Chichester, Sussex, Wiley, 1968. xii, 253 p. 9 1/4“. 117s.

Convergence of Probability Measures

Experiments on single, multiple, and concurrent schedules of reinforcement find various correlations between the rate of responding and the rate or magnitude of reinforcement. For concurrent schedules (i.e., simultaneous choice procedures), there is matching between the relative frequencies of responding and reinforcement; for multiple schedules (i.e., successive discrimination procedures), there are contrast effects between responding in each component and reinforcement in the others; and for single schedules, there are a host of increasing monotonic relations between the rate of responding and the rate of reinforcement. All these results, plus several others, can be accounted for by a coherent system of equations, the most general of which states that the absolute rate of any response is proportional to its associated relative reinforcement.

On the law of effect

Scalar expectancy theory and Weber's law in animal timing.

Cognitive control skills important for success in school and life are amenable to improvement in at-risk preschoolers without costly interventions.

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Preschool Program Improves Cognitive Control

tical perspective. For instance, there are only three passing references to kuru in a book of 650 pages. This edition reflects the renewed interest in the immunological theories of multiple sclerosis. More than half the text is devoted to Professor Lumsden's analysis of the pathoIogy and, in particular, the chemical pathology of the immune response. There is a great deal of original work devoted to the chemistry and behaviour of the immunoglobulins. Much of this appears in specialist journals and one must be grateful for the critical summary provided here. Professor Lumsden unequivocally sees the key to the problem of multiple sclerosis in the study of its immunochemistry, relegating infection by a virus or a slow virus to a quite subsidiary role. The clinical studies drawing on wide practical experience help to get one's prejudices about the illness onto a more reasoned footing. The section on treatment is still sadly limited. Dr. McAlpine found little to add to the regime which he described in 1955. McAlpine, Lumsden, and Acheson's reappraisal is an essential reference for the practising neurologist and the new edition makes important modification of and changes in emphasis from the edition of 1965.

https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/36/5/894.3.full.pdf

The assessment of aphasia and related disorders

Socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly associated with cognitive ability and achievement during childhood and beyond. Little is known about the developmental relationships between SES and specific brain systems or their associated cognitive functions. In this study we assessed neurocognitive functioning of kindergarteners from different socioeconomic backgrounds, using tasks drawn from the cognitive neuroscience literature in order to determine how childhood SES predicts the normal variance in performance across different neurocognitive systems. Five neurocognitive systems were examined: the occipitotemporal/visual cognition system, the parietal/spatial cognition system, the medial temporal/memory system, the left perisylvian/language system, and the prefrontal/executive system. SES was disproportionately associated with the last two, with low SES children performing worse than middle SES children on most measures of these systems. Relations among language, executive function, SES and specific aspects of early childhood experience were explored, revealing intercorrelations and a seemingly predominant role of individual differences in language ability involved in SES associations with executive function.

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Neurocognitive Correlates of Socioeconomic Status in Kindergarten Children.

Markov Processes and Learning Models

Background and Purpose. Accurate and economical characterization of lymphedema is needed for population-based studies of incidence and risk. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a telephone questionnaire for characterizing lymphedema. Subjects. Forty-three women who were treated previously for breast cancer and who were recruited from physical therapy practices and a cancer support organization were studied. Methods. Questionnaire assessment of the presence and degree of lymphedema was compared with physical therapists' diagnoses, based primarily on circumferential measurements. Twenty-five of the 43 subjects were measured independently by 2 physical therapists to assess interobserver agreement. Results. Interobserver agreement on clinical assessments of the presence and degree of lymphedema was high (20/25, weighted kappa=.80); all of the disagreements were between judgments of whether there was no lymphedema or mild lymphedema. For the diagnosis of at least moderate lymphedema (differential in the circumferences of the upper extremities greater than 2 cm), sensitivity of the questionnaire varied from 0.86 to 0.92 and specificity was 0.90. However, sensitivity (varying from 0.93 to 0.96) was higher than specificity (varying from 0.69 to 0.75) for the diagnosis of any lymphedema. Discussion and Conclusion. A few straightforward questions exhibited excellent agreement with physical therapists' assessments for identifying at least moderate lymphedema.

/pdf/development-and-validation-of-a-telephone-questionnaire-to-36a5ym7357.pdf

Development and Validation of a Telephone Questionnaire to Characterize Lymphedema in Women Treated for Breast Cancer

This study asked how well students' grades at the University of Pennsylvania could be predicted from linear combinations of high-school class rank (CLR), total scholastic-aptitude-test score (SAT), and average achievement-test score (ACH), all of which are available in applications for admission to selective institutions. Underrepresented minorities were not included in the main analysis. Consideration of multiple regression coefficients revealed that CLR and ACH added significantly to overall prediction, whereas SAT did not. This asymmetry in incremental validity was not easily explained by restricted range, self-selection, or nonlinear effects. SAT did add significantly to prediction of grades in some individual courses. Of the three variables, only CLR added significantly to prediction of attrition or number of uncompleted courses.

M. Frank Norman

Papers

Neurocognitive Correlates of Socioeconomic Status in Kindergarten Children.

Markov Processes and Learning Models

Development and Validation of a Telephone Questionnaire to Characterize Lymphedema in Women Treated for Breast Cancer

SATs, Achievement Tests, and High-School Class Rank as Predictors of College Performance.

Some convergence theorems for stochastic learning models with distance diminishing operators